It turns out that men’s hockey has by far the easiest path, with its relatively small starting pool of 58 teams. The NCAA Hockey Tournament has 16 teams, meaning each team in D-I hockey has about a 28 percent chance of reaching the tournament in a given season. (Title-hungry parents should start sharpening Junior's skates now.)

Each team also has nearly a 2 percent chance of winning the title, much better than the sub-1 percent chance of the other sports we looked at.

Football (the Football Bowl Subdivision, which we wish were still called Division I-A) teams carry a fairly slim 8 percent chance of reaching a BCS bowl, but a better-than-average .83 percent chance of winning a title.

Of course the best teams in a given sport often are light years from the worst, giving them a better-than-raw-probability chance of winning a title. But technically every team starts the season with a chance -- as long as it's not on NCAA probation. Which we didn't account for because, frankly, the lists are mounting. So we included all teams.

Which sport carries the statistically toughest road to a title? Women's basketball. UConn only makes it look easy.